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Fintech and banking on digital talent

12/10/2018

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By David Rai, Sparta Global CEO

I recently came across a CIO feature discussing JPMorgan Chase’s renewed investment in agile platforms and digital talent. The insightful article detailed how Lori Beer is one of many CIOs reimagining their role to focus on digital transformation. What really piqued my interest, however, was Lori’s multi-pronged strategy for winning “the war on talent” when it came to her IT staff. What can be learned from JPMorgan Chase’s approach to digitisation and tech talent?

People first, processes later

JPMorgan Chase is one of many world-leading financial firms to now allocate a significant proportion of its IT budget to perfect its digital business. With companies like Amazon providing customers with a frictionless retail experience, customers demand the same ease of service in other parts of their lives. Banking included. A decade ago people were still stashing money in spots around their house for “safe keeping” and it was rare for an individual to use mobile and online banking. Ten years on and technology is transforming finance at a pace many organisations are struggling to keep up with – but must catch up to.

For its 47 million customers – responsible for roughly 1 billion digital sign-ins in July and $5 trillion of daily payments – the firm is constructing software platforms that cut across the company's retail, wholesale and investment banking businesses. The strategy, including APIs and microservices, will produce virtual assistants and introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve customer service.

The real challenge for organisations is attracting and retaining the cutting-edge and skilled staff to manage and maintain new digital offerings. Without a trusted team of developers to continuously build and test frameworks for new technologies, organisations will deliver inefficient services and fall behind competitors.

Shaping future leaders

With banks and financial services firms across the UK kickstarting large-scale digital transformation projects, there is one clear problem. There just aren’t enough employees with the right tech skills to get the job done. This is why JPMorgan Chase is investing in people of differing knowledge levels – employing graduates and undergraduates alongside experienced professionals.

Sparta Global was born from my own frustrations when sourcing technical talent and we are dedicated to training an expert tech workforce to bridge the skills gap and support the UK’s position as a Fintech hub.

Like the approach of JPMorgan Chase, we also hire recent graduates. Focused on developing each individual into a future leader, we offer free 8-13 week courses in an IT or business subject area including: Software Development, Testing, DevOps, Business analysis and Project Management. Our specialist academy courses provide graduates with up-to-date and practical training to hit the ground running in any working environment and are populated by people from different walks of life, with different ideas, strengths and weaknesses.

If you would like to learn more about Sparta Global and how we can provide a cost effective, flexible and high-quality alternative to traditional contractors and offshore and nearshore services – get in contact today.